Madge Evans

Lovely Madge Evans in a glittering publicity portrait for DINNER AT EIGHT (1933). Born in Manhattan on July 1, 1909, Evans was featured in print ads as the "Fairy Soap girl" when she was just two years old. As a child, she debuted in "The Sign of the Cross" (1914) and went on to appear in dozens of silent films, including "The Seven Sisters" (1915)and "Alias Jimmy Valentine" (1915). At 14, she was the star of the rural melodrama "On the Banks of the Wabash" (1923) and co-starred with Richard Barthelmess in "Classmates" (1924). She was working on stage when she signed with MGM in 1927. As with theater, she continued to play ingenue parts, often as the fiancé of the leading man. She played the love interest to both Al Jolson and Frank Morgan in the 1933 film "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum". Working for MGM in the 1930s, she appeared in "Dinner at Eight" (1933), "Broadway to Hollywood" (1933), "Hell Below" (1933), and "David Copperfield" (1935). In 1933, she starred with James Cagney in the melodrama "The Mayor of Hell", playing a pretty nurse who solicits the aid of a tough politician, played by Cagney. Other notable movies in which she appeared are "Beauty for Sale" (1933), "Grand Canary" (1934), "What Every Woman Knows" (1934), and "Pennies From Heaven" (1936). When her contract with MGM expired in 1937, Evans wound down her film career and, following her 1939 marriage, concentrated on being the wife of celebrated playwright Sidney Kingsley. She last appeared on stage in one of his plays, "The Patriots", in 1943. In 1960, for her contribution to the motion picture industry, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1752 Vine Street. Evans passed away at her home in Oakland, New Jersey from cancer in 1981, aged 71.

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